I took a pic of a UARJ this week still in battleship gray scheme. It got me thinking, it has been 9 years since the new UA livery was introduced and 2 years since the Continental merger. How many and which aircraft are still in battleship gray colors? Is there a way to find this out? Is there anything besides CRJ left in the old old colors?

United Fleet Upgrade Status 16(by iowaman May 15 2013 in Civil Aviation)There are only about 25 mainline planes left to be painted, all in the UA shades of blue, and a little over 150 express planes it looks like. The battleship grey has been gone from the mainline fleet for about a year(?) now.

I like the post-merger livery, but I think it's unfortunate that they let the Rising Blue scheme go. I was sitting in traffic on Mannheim Road near ORD not too long ago and had a UA 744 in the Tulip scheme fly overhead. It's a looker.

The main problem is that many of these airplanes were freshly painted for the then "Current" scheme, only to have found out within days or weeks that a new scheme is here.

For example, one plane I know went to the paint shop for a fresh repaint, and rolled out of the hangar just 2 days before the "Blue scheme" announcement, and again, brand new airplanes rolling out of the factory with the "Blue scheme" just days prior to the merger/CO scheme announcement.

UA will obviously never tell ANYONE about these changes to protect its interests, but Come on, they could've at least told people to hold off on repainting airplanes for a few more weeks!

Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.

Quoting Goldenshield (Reply 5):UA will obviously never tell ANYONE about these changes to protect its interests, but Come on, they could've at least told people to hold off on repainting airplanes for a few more weeks!

Well typically aircraft repaints are done during heavy maintance checks that require a repaint anyways. So for marketing purposes, you think its realistic to hold off maintaince and keep a plane out of service for a few weeks while head office decides what livery is best? Hope you enjoy cancelled flights if that is the case.

Quoting wjv04 (Reply 6):Well typically aircraft repaints are done during heavy maintance checks that require a repaint anyways. So for marketing purposes, you think its realistic to hold off maintaince and keep a plane out of service for a few weeks while head office decides what livery is best?

You're right. but that's a different scenario. You have to paint/touch up a plane after MX to keep up appearances. These particular planes, though, were not scheduled for a heavy check at all. They were going to the paint shop because the paint was several years old.

[Edited 2013-05-27 04:40:18]

Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.

Quoting winstonlegthigh (Reply 4):I like the post-merger livery, but I think it's unfortunate that they let the Rising Blue scheme go. I was sitting in traffic on Mannheim Road near ORD not too long ago and had a UA 744 in the Tulip scheme fly overhead. It's a looker.

Must have been from HKG correct? And now that's a 777, I think there are no more 747's at ORD.

If that's the case, does that mean that particular RJ hasn't seen a major overhaul in nine years. I'd be kind of weary of flying on that frame. It's kind of like the one Dash-8 still in the really old Japan Air Commuter paint scheme.
Just curious on why the re-paint to a new scheme was never performed over that long span.

Quoting Goldenshield (Reply 7): You have to paint/touch up a plane after MX to keep up appearances. These particular planes, though, were not scheduled for a heavy check at all.

I have always wondered how UA slipped so many Grey planes through C and D. Don't they have to do C checks roughly every 4 years? So it's odd that in almost 9 years some of them have not gone through one.

It reminds me of a joke from Friends:
Chandler: "Joey, what did you get Angela D'Elvechio for her birthday when you were dating?"
Joey: "She never had a birthday well we were together."
Chandler: "For 3 years?!"

Quoting cosyr (Reply 10):I have always wondered how UA slipped so many Grey planes through C and D. Don't they have to do C checks roughly every 4 years? So it's odd that in almost 9 years some of them have not gone through one.

The planes will never skip a check, it's just that they may or may not get painted depending the work that needs to be done. If there's sheet metal work that has to be done, like replacing a skin panel that had previously been damaged, they aren't going to repaint the entire airplane if it doesn't need it, but they WILL paint the the replaced skin section to match the livery currently on that bird.

Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.

i get that reasoning, but no one forced United to change from Grey to Rising Blue, they did it by choice. You can then either choose to repaint when your in the shop, the plane is out of service anyway, and you have the slightest excuse, or you can wIt and eventually have to pull it out of service specifically for painting later. Tilton was such a joke of a CEO. He was just sitting on it trying to merge since he got there. He never expected to finish painting into blue, because he knew it would eventually be a new airline. People give Smisek a hard time (and I hope he moves on after the merger is complete) but at least he actually seems interested in running and investing in the airline.

UAX paints their planes the same way they deliver their service: Late and poorly executed.

I was on a EMB120 a few weeks ago that looked like it was a flying time capsule from 1987. Of course I had plenty of time to stare at it out the window as we waited 2 hours for maintenance delay. My own experience is that the other major carriers have much better express feed than UAX.

Quoting sovietjet (Reply 11): Either way I am guessing that RJ I saw is pretty rare in those colors now...

Maybe it's different at other airports, but I find it to not be rare at all to see CRJ's or EMB-120's on the battleship gray livery at SFO. More planes than not have been repainted, but the battleship livery's still common enough to not be noteworthy.

I know I'm in the minority, but I always preferred the battleship livery over the "shades of blue" livery...